NAIA Volleyball Championship Opening Round Recap

Twelve winners on Saturday meet up with 12 teams with bye in Sioux City, Iowa

November 17, 2012

By Chad Waller, Director of Communications and Sports Information

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - (Scoreboard) Home teams enjoyed a distinct advantage as 10 of the 12 hosts were victorious during the 2012 NAIA Volleyball National Championship Opening Round today. All 12 champions will meet up with the 12 teams who had an Opening Round bye, in the National Championship final site presented by CNOS Foundation from Nov. 27 - Dec. 1 in the Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena in Sioux City, Iowa.

The final site pool will be determined on Sunday and released by 5 p.m. CST on www.naia.org. The final 24 teams will be placed into six pools for three days of round-robin play in Sioux City. The top two teams from each pool will advance to the single-elimination bracket starting Nov. 30. The championship match will take place on Dec. 1 at 8 p.m. CST.

With the most championship trips of the Opening Round field with 15, Georgetown (Ky.) strung together a 3-1 victory against visiting Xavier (La.). Conversely, Viterbo (Wis.) celebrated its first-ever championship win in its first trip in school history. The V-Hawks took down visiting Davenport (Mich.) by a 3-0 score.

The road teams to win were St. Francis (Ill.) at Doane (Neb.), 3-2, and Cal State San Marcos at Vanguard (Calif.), 3-1. The Fighting Saints posted its first playoff win since 2002, while Cal State San Marcos earned it first-ever championship victory.

Defending national champion Texas at Brownsville was one of the 12 teams who earned a bye. The Scorpions are one of two programs in this year's field with a national championship title (Columbia (Mo.)).

NeuLion, the NAIA's official video-streaming company of 12 select NAIA national championship events, will be broadcasting all single elimination matches of the 2012 Volleyball National Championship. The single-elimination matches' start at 10 a.m. CST on Nov. 30 will be streamed and coverage will continue through the championship match on 8 p.m. CST on Dec. 1. For more information, click here.